Disney Declassified: Tales of Real Life Disney Scandals, Sex, Accidents and Deaths (23 page)

Slowly,
Odd Bodkins
became political. This led to a loss of newspapers willing to feature it. By 1970, the San Francisco Chronicle, the very paper that gave him his start, also cut ties with Dan. The strip took aim at many things synonymous with America and American culture. Many of the targets were what the public considered icons of greatness; former presidents, movie stars and the country's favorite mouse.

Apparently, Dan became jaded with society. A society he thought had become too watered down, phony, and artificial. Not everything is always a happily ever after story, and Dan thought this country became this way due in part to Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse. With his work out of the mainstream, he decided to zero in on the catastrophic cultural catalyst, Mickey. Dan went “underground” with a group of friends and animators. He decided to make his voice heard. He was going to take the mouse out the best way he knew how: publish a comic titled “Air Pirates” featuring a bootleg Mickey Mouse.

 Mickey, known for doing the right thing, was portrayed doing the wrong things. He was drinking, smoking, getting high and having sex. It would be Mickey and friends, as you’ve never seen them before. The names and identities were not changed and keep in mind these artists were very creative, not only with the storylines, but also with their artwork. They were all professional artists, so the works looked as if it came from the Disney studio; we’re talking a damn near exact Mickey.

In 1971, Dan and crew had around 20,000 comics printed. They wanted everyone, especially Disney, to see their works. They staged some creative ways to get their comics out to the masses. They hired “winos” to dress up as police and sell the comics on street corners. They even dropped comic books onto a town from a blimp. This creativity still didn’t get Disney’s attention the way Dan wanted it. He was itching for a fight with a corporate behemoth. Well, if Disney won’t come to you, it’s time to go to Disney. A friend’s father was an executive with Disney. Dan had his friend sneak copies of “Air Pirates” into a board meeting and leave them out for all executives to see. Dan got his wish. Disney sued him for copyright infringement and a legal fight ensued; one that lasted nearly nine years.

The case could have been an “open and shut” case. Dan clearly copied the copyrighted works flawlessly; he even admitted it to court. But this case wasn’t going away and neither was Dan. In 1972, Disney won an injunction against the Air Pirates, barring them from publishing any more comics with Disney characters. In 1975, Disney won $200,000 in damages and a restraining order against Dan, who continued to draw and taunt Mickey and Disney. This eventually lead to a stint in jail after violating court orders and continuing to sell naughty Mickey cartoons; hey, they still needed to pay their legal fees.

Finally, after years of back and forth, a refusal by the Supreme Court to hear the case, an agreement was reached. Dan would stop and Disney would drop the contempt charge and judgments against him. For Dan, this whole debacle wasn’t entirely about his social commentary and Disney’s influence over culture. There was more to his motive and he dubbed it the "Mouse Liberation Front."

Dan argued that his comics were covered under freedom of speech with the First Amendment and under the laws of “fair use.” A judge ruled that the First Amendment right to expression only applied to the fair use of such material and “a parody may not consist of a ‘substantial’ taking or ‘outright copying’ of a copyrighted work.” While the Supreme Court refused to hear the case, Justice Anthony Kennedy, in passing, commented that the Air Pirates were “profiteers who did no more than place the characters from a familiar work in novel or eccentric poses.”

The lawsuits ended around 1980 in regards to the Air Pirates. But years later, Dan would sue Disney, claiming they stole one of his copyrighted characters. He claimed Roger Rabbit was based off his drug-dealing rabbit, Roger, from his comic the Tortoise and the Hare. The case was eventually dropped.  

Going from one high profile copyright case to another, although this one didn’t last nearly as long. This story put Mickey vs. Oscar. In March of 1989, Disney sued the Academy Awards for their illegal use of Snow White in a ten-minute song and dance routine during the award ceremony. Days after the award show, Disney filed suit against the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for copyright infringement and unfair competition. This suit was settled with a public apology from the Academy.

In the next case, our Disney heroine transforms from Snow White to Ho White. An Australian beer company, The Foundry, took a page out of Dan O’Neill’s book and placed Snow White in a compromising position. The fruit-flavored beer purveyor created an advertising beer campaign that put Snow White in bed with her seven little friends. The advertisement featured Ms. White in bed topless with only a blanket covering her. She had a glazed look on her face and was blowing smoke rings. The cartoon had her looking rather ragged, as if she just went seven rounds. The advertisement didn’t last very long. It debuted in October of 2009 and made its way around the globe pretty quickly. Shortly after it was picked up by countless news organizations, the company took their ad down. As they put it, they had “brief contact with Disney”— ‘nuff said there.

The next case takes us over to China, where Disney has a strong presence. Disney has battled trademark and copyright issues in China for a very long time—like so many other American companies. Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when Michael Eisner signed a deal with the Chinese government allowing for Disney cartoons to be shown on government television, Disney asked for the government's help in curbing knock-off and bootleg merchandise. Their struggle still continues today with thousands of counterfeit products being produced in China and making their way into this country.

In 2007, Disney sued a Chinese travel agency over their name. Disney had the Chinese high court order a travel agency named “D Land” change their name, as it could give the impression the company is a part of the Disney company. Another case outside of the country had Disney’s copyright team circling around a mall in West Edmonton, Canada.

Disney sued the West Edmonton Mall and their amusement park Fantasyland in 1992 over the use of the world Fantasyland. According to Disney’s lawyers, Fantasyland didn’t exist until Disney invented the word when they opened Disneyland in 1955. They also own the copyright to the word. Disney contended that allowing the West Edmonton Mall to use the Fantasyland name is like allowing somebody to sell fake Rolex watches as if they were real. The mall’s attorneys claimed the distance between Edmonton, Canada and Anaheim was too great for a person to be confused and think they were going to a Disney property. In addition, the mall used the name since 1983, when their park opened. Disney won their case and Fantasyland became Galaxyland in 1995.

A popular story in the history and lore in creating Walt Disney World was Walt’s use of “dummy” corporations to purchase his desired land in central Florida. AyeFour Properties, Latin-American Development, and Tomahawk Properties were some of the corporate names utilized to secure the tracts of land at reasonable prices. Walt felt if the landowners knew he was purchasing the land, the prices would skyrocket. He was correct; when word got out that he was making land purchases, neighboring plots of land increased in price substantially.

A group of businessmen took the opposite approach with their Florida real estate and land group in 1970. The year before Walt Disney World opened in 1971, Disney was already defending their name in the sunshine state. Samuel Rose along with Max and Irwin Krauss had the great idea of naming their real estate business that sold large tracts of land in Florida, Disney Area Acreage Inc. (Disney Land Real Estate must have sounded too generic).

The trio was hauled into court on trademark infringement with claims that their enterprise solely took on the Disney name to “derive benefit from Disney’s reputation and goodwill.” Using the Disney name would likely cause confusion for prospective purchasers of land, allowing them to think the company is somehow associated with the mouse. Needless to say, the court ordered Disney Area Acreage Inc. dissolved, and sent the men back to the corporate drawing board to pick out a new name.

      Disney and their intellectual property attorneys continue to bounce around a few entrepreneurs. In 2010 and 2011 Disney sued Bouncing 4 Fun and San Jose Party Rentals of California for selling and renting “bounce houses” or “moon bounces.” The bounces were either illegally Disney-themed or featured their copyrighted characters. In both cases Disney sued for upwards of $500K. They were successful in both cases.

Across the country in Lake County, Florida, practically on the mouse’s doorstep, Disney sued a family business for $1 million in July of 2008. The family was running a small family entertainment party business. They rented moon bounces and provided live entertainment for the kiddies. The live entertainment was in the way of performers dressing up as Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore, and Tigger. Disney sued them for exploiting the copyright and trademark likenesses in these costumes that were unauthorized reproductions.

The small company claimed they didn’t know they were doing anything illegal and bought the costumes on eBay for $500 from a company in Peru. Disney ordered them to stop their entertainment and forfeit their costumes to the company. In their legal documents filed in court addressing Disney’s suit, the guilty party noted they were a very small company run by a family currently on public assistance and trying to make ends meet for their children.

This is a situation Disney encounters frequently with the pervasiveness of the internet. Small vendors, wannabe entrepreneurs, and creative folks aren’t safe from Disney either. If you have a keen eye for arts and crafts and Disney, be careful putting your unlicensed creative works up on eBay or Etsy. Disney is known to scour those websites and have auctions and listings removed with an accompanying “cease and desist” letter.

Enough is enough, right? You get the picture. Disney is highly protective of their characters and name. They are the biggest and most lucrative name in family entertainment and a cornerstone of many things in our society today.

No one can escape Disney’s copyright grasps, from underground cartoons to “mom and pop” businesses, no one is immune; well, almost no one. There have been a few diabolical miscreants where even Disney’s legal eagles didn’t want to get involved, and the mouse had to turn the other ear.

Disney is no stranger to pursuing litigation against companies abroad. In 2007, Disney faced something pretty troubling and devious internationally, the likes of which even they never experienced before. Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic organization, went on Al-Aqsa television to preach Islamic domination and hatred to Israel and the United States.

Ironically, they chose the face and symbol of America known around the world as their voice to spew their messages. A television show geared towards children featured a person dressed in costume as Mickey Mouse. The character was named Farfour and, in a high-pitched Mickey-esque voice, conveyed his anti-American and anti-Zionist views.

Disney certainly took note but chose not to address the situation and bring further recognition to it. As Robert Iger said, “ We didn’t mobilize our forces and seek to either have the clip taken down or to make any broad public statement about it. I just didn’t think it would have any effect. I think it should have been obvious how the company felt about the subject. We were appalled by the use of our character to disseminate that kind of message. I think any time a group seeks to exploit children in that matter, it’s despicable. We simply made the decision that we would not either create or prolong a public discourse on the subject by making a loud public statement.”

Another state-run television station was guilty of high jacking Mickey, this time with a far less devious message. In the summer of 2012, North Korea held a concert for their all-mighty leader, Kim Jong Un. The concert was broadcast on television and featured a rather upbeat theme for this snarky government.

The ensemble cast of Mickey, Minnie, Winnie the Pooh and Tigger paraded around, sang and danced while an enormous screen behind them played clips from
Beauty and the Beast
and
Snow White. 

Clearly, there was nothing Disney could do about this situation. Our government won’t approach this rogue country, as there is no diplomatic relations. That didn’t stop the United States State Department from voicing its displeasure in the media. They publicly scolded the country and urged them to respect intellectual property rights.

I guess if a government doesn’t provide food and care for an enormous amount of their country, they aren’t going to care about offending Mickey. This is another interesting example of a group that hates America but loves our mouse. By default, one can surmise that these folks must secretly love our culture, as our powerful mouse is the true cultural king.

It’s an Accessible World After All

In March of 1997, David went to the restroom at 11:00
A
.
M
. near the entrance of the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World. Seconds after he entered, a man came up behind him, put one hand around his mouth and his other hand brandished a stiletto knife. David was robbed of his cash and wallet. Everything happened so fast, he never got a chance to see the robber's face.

A lengthy Associated Press newspaper article published in June of 1984 detailed Walt Disney World's efforts to help ensure a comfortable stay for handicapped and disabled guests. The article encouraged folks needing assistance to write to Disney for their “Disabled Guests Guide Book” in preparation for a trip to see Mickey. The guide was also available to guests already on Disney property. This article was interesting, as it would be six years until federal law required places such as Walt Disney World to make accommodations for handicapped guests.